FORT LAUDERDALE — It seemed like a genius game plan to bring lifesaving care to the barrier island: Make a deal with Broward Health to build a 24-hour emergency medical center on the parking lot at the Fort Lauderdale-owned Beach Community Center.
Commissioner John Herbst thought condo residents on nearby Galt Ocean Mile would just love the idea. He thought wrong.
An overflow crowd showed up en masse last Thursday to protest the idea at a town hall meeting hosted by Herbst, who represents the neighborhood on the northern end of Fort Lauderdale’s barrier island.
More than 250 seniors — some in wheelchairs and toting canes — crowded into the community center at 3351 NE 33rd Ave. to blast the proposal, saying it would ruin the up-and-coming neighborhood. They don’t want the extra traffic or the howl of emergency sirens day and night. And if they need an ER, there’s plenty on the mainland, they say.
Herbst and Broward Health officials, who were there to answer questions, say they got the message loud and clear.
Herbst did his best to calm the fury.
“I hear a lot of angst and a lot of anxiety and some fear and some, ‘We just don’t want it here,’” he said at one point. “And I respect that.”
So is the idea dead?
Neither Herbst nor Broward Health will say.
What now? Too soon to say
“Nothing has been decided,” Herbst told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday. “I have not yet had a chance to have a conversation with officials at Broward Health to see if they still have any desire to move forward, given the opposition. At this point it would be premature to say.”
During last week’s raucous and spirited town hall meeting, several angry residents wanted to know if the deal was dead.
“We’re getting up here and we’re getting slammed by you all — and that’s OK,” said Alan Whaley, Broward Health’s Chief Operating Officer.
“Is it dead?” a voice hollered from the crowd.
“That is not my decision,” Whaley answered, prompting a chorus of moans and groans.
Since the meeting, Herbst says he’s gotten more than 100 emails from people opposed to the plan.
It was unclear who approached who about the plan.
Herbst says it was Broward Health CEO Shane Strum.
Broward Health officials say it was the city.
Herbst told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he was having dinner two months ago with Strum when the topic came up.
“They want to build a hospital with 12 beds at the beach to stabilize patients who’ve had a heart attack or stroke,” Herbst told the Sun Sentinel on Feb. 27. “They can build it on the parking lot at the Beach Community Center. The city would provide the land in a $1-a-year deal. They’ll build it and staff it.”
This week, Herbst again told the newspaper the whole thing was Strum’s idea.
“He mentioned he was desirous of finding a location for a medical facility on the barrier island,” Herbst said.
Envisioning a new center
Broward Health officials envision a free-standing, one-story emergency department with eight beds that would serve 30 to 40 patients a day, Whaley said. Another option would be an emergency department with eight beds and up to three stories to make room for primary care and other specialty services.
Whaley told the crowd most people would walk or drive to the emergency department and would not be arriving by ambulance.
Patients would be in and out in 60 to 90 minutes. If they need to be admitted, they would be transported to another hospital.
Condo resident Sabrina Bortz told the Sun Sentinel she doubts the emergency department would draw mainly walk-up traffic, as hospital officials say.
“If you’re having a stroke, you’re not going to walk here,” she said after last week’s meeting ended. “I think they’re going to build it. It’s about the money.”
Broward Health came to the town hall meeting with conceptual renderings of the emergency department center on four large poster boards. Some residents asked whether the hospital has bothered to collect data on whether such a facility was needed in the area.
“When the city came to us and talked to us about the need for a medical facility, we did put together the data,” Whaley told residents. “We are not proposing building a hospital. This area does not need a hospital.”
Fort Lauderdale’s barrier island lost its only hospital more than 20 years ago, when Cleveland Clinic moved to its new $150 million campus in Weston in mid-2001.
Residents back then were trying to get another vendor to run the hospital on the barrier island, Herbst said. But in the end, the hospital was sold to a developer who knocked it down and built the Sapphire condo just south of Oakland Park Boulevard, not far from the Beach Community Center.
‘We’re not the villains here’
“I don’t know what you guys are trying to pull here,” one man said, prompting claps from the crowd. “Most of us don’t want this facility.”
Another man said he doubted the emergency center would be a quiet neighbor.
“Don’t tell me there’s only going to be a few ambulances,” he said. “You know darn well you can’t guarantee that.”
One woman said an emergency center was simply not needed or welcome.
“Why would you want to come in here and ruin everything? It makes no sense. We had no issues when Cleveland Clinic went away.”
Whaley told the crowd Broward Health officials are looking to serve the community’s needs and attended the meeting to hear feedback.
“We’re not the villains here,” he said.
Herbst said he was stunned by the huge turnout of residents upset about the plan.
Fred Nesbitt, president of the Galt Mile Community Association, says it was the biggest crowd he’s seen up for a town hall meeting in the neighborhood.
“I told John Herbst the crowd was evenly split,” Nesbitt said. “Fifty percent were opposed and 50 percent were violently opposed. Not one person spoke in favor of the proposal. They’re not opposed to a medical center on the barrier island. They just don’t want it there.”
Commissioner Steve Glassman, whose district also includes neighborhoods on the barrier island, was critical of Herbst for hosting the meeting and stirring people up before checking in with the rest of the commission.
“You don’t get a crowd like that when people are happy,” Glassman said. “This is not up to him. He’s one of five (votes on the commission).”
During a public meeting on Tuesday, Glassman grilled Herbst, asking how his town hall forum went.
“It was a very robust and engaged conversation,” Herbst said.
‘Let me run my district’
Glassman asked whether Broward Health was still pursuing the plan.
“I hesitate to say anything is off the table until I have that conversation with the hospital district,” Herbst told Glassman. “I ask you respectfully to let me run my district as you run yours. You are very territorial. I really don’t need your input to run my district.”
Glassman snapped back: “I would remind you that the barrier island covers three (commission) districts: 1, 2 and 4. As a city, we should be respectful of all the districts in the city. We need to do things in a way that doesn’t stir people up.”
Mayor Dean Trantalis defended Herbst, saying Broward Health approached the city about building an emergency center and Herbst was trying to help find the best spot for it.
Strum asked to meet with Trantalis months ago at City Hall to discuss the idea of bringing a medical center to the beach, the mayor told the Sun Sentinel.
“The idea of putting in a medical facility on the barrier island has been around for decades,” Trantalis said. “When Shane Strum came to me and said he wanted to put a medical facility on the beach, I thought it was a great idea. But where do you put it and who’s going to pay for it? It’s clear people do not want it where we have the Beach Community Center.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan